I'm maintaining a lab of debian squeeze machines that run OpenOffice.org (i'm considering upgrading to LibreOffice from squeeze-backports). I'd like to adjust the default page margins for all users of Writer. Most instructions i've found suggest ways to do this as a single user, but not how to make the change system-wide. I don't want to ask every user of these machines to do this (and i also don't want to tamper with each home directory directly -- that's not something i can maintain reliably).

Alas, i can find no documentation about how to change the default page margins system-wide for either Oo.o or LibreOffice. Surely this is something that can be done without a recompile. What am i missing?

Are you referring to /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/registry/writer.xcd? this file is managed by the system package manager. Can i just drop another .xcd file in /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/registry/ and have it be loaded as well?

if so, what do i need to put in that file to change the margins of the default page?

See the Personal configuration section of The Document Foundation Deployment and Migration guide: These settings are mostly personal and stored in a specific file registrymodifications.xcu. So, if we replace this file after installation with a similar file with the correct above settings, we can control the selected feature. ...

Toolbars and icons are also personal, but cannot be transferred by means of copying. For example, custom Writer toolbars are in "%userprofile%\Application Data\LibreOffice\3\user\config\soffice.cfg\modules\swriter\toolba r". ...

In some situations, such as decreasing Macro security levels on a silent install, or configuring an option for the installation, can be carried by placing a XML file in the right place, after LibreOffice is installed and with the help of a script or automated tool.

For example the following XML file with .xcd extension can be placed in

%PROGRAMFILES%\LibreOffice 3.5\share\registry

and will set macro security level to Medium

OOo Admin Guide says re: paths: To Add a Template For All Users of a OpenOffice.org Network Installation 1 Become root. 2 Copy the template to the network-install-dir/share/template/ directory.

To Add a Template to a Workstation Installation of OpenOffice.org 1 Become root. 2 Copy the template to the ooo-user-dir/user/template/ directory on the workstation.

Also see libreoffice-users 9 Feb 2012 thread re: Default path for templates: $USER_LO_DIR/..../user/template are personal templates, only for each user. $LO_INST_DIR/..../template/common are collective templates, for all user of system. > The path he needs to use ends in .../template/common because his LO > installation is on a server. This permits people from other computers to > use LO and the same templates. > If templates are placed in the common folder, they will not be > seen. A folder must first be created in the common folder and the > templates placed in the created folder. (See my earlier post.) > There is another path for templates which is in the user's LO > folder. This path ends in .../user/template. Templates placed in the > template folder of this path will be seen. Templates in this path are > only visible on one computer which is why this path would not work for > him.

I don't see any links in the above, and i haven't been able to find the libreoffice-users thread you mention even though i searched at the archive where i think it should be. Could you point to your source documents?

Also, none of the text you've provided suggests anything about making a given template the default template without tampering with end user profiles, which i've already stated i do not want to do (based on years of sysadmin practice). Do you have any suggestions for how to set the default template for all users?

Sadly, links are disallowed for anon comments. You are looking in the right place, but wrong year. I saw the emails for Feb 8-9 2012 on pages 94-95 of the link you provided.

You are correct. Doing as you propose does not seem to be supported, and the recommendations are to script changes to the user files. Do note, though, that even should you work around that and fiddle with main.xcd or writer.xcd to affect global settings, the user can still at any time override it by creating his own user settings and make any template he wants the default--so it's not foolproof unless you disable the user from accessing/modifying the template settings. I suppose main.xcd makes sense, unless you care only about writer, but do not know exactly what to put in there.

But first, the template has to be accessible to all users of a network install, and what I posted discusses that a bit. Apparently, you need a dir in a dir to make it show with a category name from the global location.

You can still paste URLs (they won't turn into automatic links) as an anonymous user. This is significantly more convenient than english descriptions of where the link might be. I think you are talking about the thread that derives from this initial post.

I'm perfectly fine with users overriding the sysadmin-declared defaults. They're called "defaults", and not "forced overrides". In fact, wanting to respect user preferences is the main reason i don't want to fiddle with each user's profile directory.

I guess i'll start by making sure that i can make a template visible to all users as a first step. I'm going to hold out hope that the LO or Oo.o teams haven't been silly enough to prevent an admin from tuning the default template for all users from the central installation.

Hmm, this ooconfig extension seems to choke with libreoffice 1:3.5.4+dfsg-4 on wheezy amd64. When i go to look at the about:config settings, the application freezes.

Also: i'm not against a user who wants to choose their own default template doing so; i just want to change the system default for those users who never tweak it themselves. So i don't think oor:finalized="true" is relevant (or desirable, for that matter).

You seem to be having no luck. As I understand it, you should make an extension containing just an .xcu file as payload. If you make a system wide config, it will just be overridden by the users' existing margin settings. Example here: http users.freedesktop.org/~thorsten/extensions/config_only_sample.oxt